A Humanities Iowa presentation of "River to River" will take place on Sunday, September 20 at 2pm. The event is free to the public. (A Silos & Smokestacks Heritage Area partner site.)
After a sold out premiere event in Davenport, Iowa at the Putnam Giant Screen, River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6, a new documentary by Emmy® nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, continues on its film tour to the UI Museum of Natural History, Macbride Hall, 17 N. Clinton, Iowa City on Sunday, September 20, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. A Q&A with the filmmakers and Carolyn Dyer, author of “Rediscovering Nancy Drew”, Dave Darby, executive director of the U.S. Route 6 Tourist Association-Iowa, and Sarah Horgen from the Museum of Natural History, will follow the screening. This Humanities Iowa program is FREE to the public. Iowa City is among several towns along Iowa’s historic Route 6 featured in the film.
River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6 guides viewers on a nostalgic classic car journey through yesterday’s soda shops, filling stations, general stores, drive-ins, historic sites and roadside attractions that line Iowa’s U.S. Highway 6.
Photo courtesy David W. Darby, U.S. Route 6 Tourist Association-Iowa.
“With Interstate 80’s near universal use by travelers, Route 6 and the memories that define it have faded from the public’s consciousness,” said director Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films. “The film is a celebration of a journey.”
“Most travelers are unaware of the many colorful stories from the past around every turn in the road,” said producer Tammy Rundle. “Iowa’s portion of the transcontinental Route 6 has a past that includes Bonnie and Clyde, Jesse James, Nancy Drew, Jack Kerouac, the Great Race Across Iowa, and others.”
The project was suggested to the Rundles by Dave Darby, Executive Director of the Iowa Division of the Route 6 Tourist Association.
"Rediscovering Nancy Drew" author Carolyn Dyer will take part in Q&A at the Humanities Iowa screening of "River to River" and talk about Mildren Wirt Benson's work on the original Nancy Drew book series.
Several Iowa City sites including the Museum of Natural History and Plum Grove Historic Site are featured in the film, as well as the surprising story of the mysterious author of the original Nancy Drew book series is featured. Karen Mason, curator of the Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa Libraries, and author Carolyn Dyer, sat for on-camera interviews to reveal the story of the popular mystery writer who was born and raised in the small hamlet of Ladora, Iowa off of Route 6, wrote her first published work at age 12, and was the first person to graduate with a Master’s in Journalism at the University of Iowa.
Plum Grove, the retirement home of first territorial governor Robert Lucas (A Silos & Smokestacks Heritage Area partner site.)
The documentary will continue touring from Iowa City along Historic Route 6 with screenings on September 22, 7pm at the Marengo Public Library in Marengo, IA; the 27th, 2pm at the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs ($8/pp); the 28th at the Roundhouse in Dexter ($7/pp); the 29th in Spaulding Center for Transportation in Grinnell ($7/pp). Showings will continue at film festivals and in art theaters, followed by a national DVD release, and broadcasts on Midwestern PBS stations in 2016.
The Black Angel located in Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City.
River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6 was funded in part by grants from Humanities Iowa, Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area and the National Endowment for the Humanities through the documentary’s fiscal sponsor, The Iowa U.S. Route 6 Tourist Association.
For more information about the documentary, visit Highway6Movie.com. For more information about Historic Route 6 in Iowa, visit http://usroute6iowa.org/.
To preorder the River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 click HERE!
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